Study and Stimulants Part 15

MR. R. A. PROCTOR, F. R. S.

"I would venture to add an expression of my own firm conviction that a life of study is aided by the almost entire avoidance of stimulants, alcoholic as well as nicotian, I do not say that the moderate use of such stimulants does harm, only that so far as I can judge from my own experience it affords no help. I recognise a slight risk in what Abbe Moigno correctly states--the apparent power of indefinite work which comes with the almost entire avoidance of stimulants; but the risk is very slight, for the man must have very little sense who abuses that power to a dangerous degree. Certainly, if the loss of the power be evidence of mischief, I would say (still speaking of my own experience, which may be peculiar to my own temperament) that the use of stimulants, even in a very moderate degree, is mischievous. For instance, I repeatedly have put this point to the test:--I work say from breakfast till one o'clock, when, if I feel at all hungry, I join my family at lunch; if now at lunch I eat very lightly, and take a gla.s.s of ale or whisky-and-water, I feel disposed, about a quarter of an hour later, to leave my work, which has, for the time, become irksome to me; and perhaps a couple of hours will pa.s.s before I care for steady work again: on the other hand, if I eat as lightly, or perhaps take a heartier lunch, but drink water only, I sit down as disposed for work after as before the meal. In point of fact, a very weak gla.s.s of whisky-and-water has as bad an influence on the disposition for work as a meal unwisely heavy would have. It is the same in the evening. If I take a light supper, with water only, I can work (and this, perhaps, is bad) comfortably till twelve or one; but a gla.s.s of weak whisky-and-water disposes me to rest or sleep, or to no heavier mental effort than is involved in reading a book of fiction or travel. These remarks apply only to quiet home life, with my relatives or intimate friends at the table.

At larger gatherings it seems (as Herbert Spencer has noted) that not only a heartier meal, but stimulants in a larger quant.i.ty, can be taken without impairment of mental vivacity, and even with advantage, up to a point falling far short, however, of what in former times would have been regarded as the safe limit of moderation. Under those circ.u.mstances, "wine maketh glad the heart of man," and many find the stimulus it gives pleasant,--perhaps dangerously so, unless the lesson is soon learned that the point is very soon reached beyond which mental vivacity is not increased but impaired.

"I must confess it seems to me that if we are to admit the necessity or prudence of adopting total abstinence principles, because of the miseries which have been caused by undue indulgence--if A, B, and C, who have no desire to make beasts of themselves, are to refrain from the social gla.s.s because X, Y, and Z cannot content themselves till they have taken half-a-dozen social gla.s.ses too many--society has an additional reason to be angry with the drunkards, and with those scarcely less pernicious members of the social body who either cannot keep sober without blue ribbons or pledges, or, having no wish to drink, want everyone to know it. I admit, of course, if it really is the case that the healthy-minded must refrain from the innocent use of such stimulants as suit them, in the interest of the diseased, it may be very proper and desirable to do so: but only in the same way that it might be very desirable to avoid in a lunatic asylum the rational discussion of subjects about which the lunatics were astray. For steady literary or scientific work, however, and throughout the hours of work (or near them), it is certain that for most men something very close to total abstinence from stimulants is the best policy."

_Knowledge_, July, 29, 1882.

"I have recently had rather interesting evidence of the real value of the use of so-called stimulants. When lecturing daily, and also travelling long distances, I always adopt a very light diet: tea, dry toast, and an egg for breakfast; nothing then till six, when I take tea, dry toast, and a chop; after lecturing I take a biscuit or so with cheese, and a gla.s.s of whisky-and-water, 'cold without.' I tried this season the effect of omitting the whisky. Result--sleeplessness till one or two in the morning. No other harm, but weariness during following day. Taking the whisky-and-water again, after trying this a night or two, acted as the most perfect sedative."

_Knowledge_, Dec. 1, 1882.

DR. B. W. RICHARDSON, F. R. S.

"The evidence is all perfect that alcohol gives no potential power to brain or muscle. During the first stage of its action it may enable a wearied or a feeble organism to do brisk work for a short time; it may make the mind briefly brilliant: it may excite muscle to quick action, but it does nothing substantially, and fills up nothing it has destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a brilliant sight, but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol.... The true place of alcohol is clear; it is an agreeable temporary shroud. The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy under its shadow. The civilised man, overburdened with mental labour, or with engrossing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after all, in which in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires from perfect natural life. To search for force in alcohol is, to my mind, equivalent to the act of seeking for the sun in subterranean gloom until all is night.... In respect to the influence of smoking on the mental faculties, there need, I believe, be no obscurity. When mental labour is being commenced, indulgence in a pipe produces in most persons a heavy, dull condition, which impairs the processes of digestion and a.s.similation, and suspends more or less that motion of the tissues which const.i.tutes vital activity. But if mental labour be continued for a long time, until exhaustion be felt, then the resort to a pipe gives to some _habitues_ a feeling of relief; it soothes, it is said, and gives new impetus to thought. This is the practical experience of almost all smokers, but few men become so habituated to the pipe as to commence well a day of physical or mental work on tobacco. Many try, but it almost invariably obtains that they go through their labours with much less alacrity than other men who are not so addicted. The majority of smokers feel that after a hard day's labour, a pipe, supposing always that the indulgence of it is moderately carried out, produces temporary relief from exhaustion."

_Diseases of Modern Life_.

"I gave up that which I thought warmed and helped me, and I can declare, after considering the whole period in which I have subjected myself to this ordeal, I never did more work; I never did more varied work; I never did work with so much facility; I never did work with such a complete sense of freedom from anxiety and worry, as I have done during the period that I have abstained altogether."

Speech at Exeter Hall, Feb. 7, 1877.

MR. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.

"As to smoking stupefying a man's faculties or blunting his energy, that allegation I take to be mainly nonsense. The greatest workers and thinkers of modern times have been inveterate smokers. At the same time, it is idle to deny that smoking to excess weakens the eyesight, impairs the digestion, plays havoc with the nerves, and interferes with the action of the heart. I have been a constant smoker for nearly forty years; but had I my life to live over again I would never touch tobacco in any shape or form. It is to the man who sits all day long at a desk, poring over books and scribbling 'copy,' that smoking is deleterious."

_Ill.u.s.trated London News_, Sep. 30, 1882.

BISHOP TEMPLE.

"I can testify that since I have given up intoxicating liquors I have felt less weariness in what I have to do. I have been busy ever since I was a little boy, and I therefore know how much I can undertake, and I certainly can testify that since I gave up intoxicating liquors-- although I did not like the giving them up, inasmuch as I rather enjoyed them, when I used them, and inasmuch as I never felt the slightest intention to exceed, nor am I at all among those who cannot take one gla.s.s, and only one, but must go on to another--I have certainly found that I am very much the better for it. Whatever arguments I may hear about it, it is impossible for me to escape from the memory of the fact that I have found myself very much better able to work, to write, to read, to speak, and to do whatever I may have to do, ever since I abstained totally and entirely from all intoxicating liquor."

Speech at Torquay, Sept 10, 1882.

SIR HENRY THOMPSON, F. R. C. S., SURGEON-EXTRAORDINARY TO THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.

"I will tell you who can't take alcohol, and that is very important in the present day. Of all the people I know who cannot stand alcohol, it is the brain-workers; and you know it is the brain-workers that are increasing in number, and that the people who do not use their brains are going down, and that is a noteworthy incident in relation to the future. I find that the men who live indoors, who have sedentary habits, who work their nervous systems, and who get irritable tempers, as such people always do, unless they take a large balance of exercise to keep them right (which they rarely do), I say that persons who are living in these fast days get nervous systems more excitable and more irritable than their forefathers, and they cannot bear alcohol so well."

Speech at Exeter Hall, Feb. 7, 1877.

MR. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F. R. A. S., F. C. S.

"I have just read your quotations from the Abbe Moigno, and your own comments thereon. I have tried experiments very similar to those you describe, with exactly the same results; in fact, so far as intellectual work is concerned, I might describe my own experience by direct plagiarism of your words.

Besides these, I have tried other experiments which may be interesting to those who, without any partizan fanaticism, are seeking for practical guidance on this subject.

As many of your readers may know, I have been (when of smaller girth) an energetic pedestrian, have walked over a large part of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, crossed France twice on foot, done Switzerland and the Tyrol pretty exhaustively; in one walk from Paris taking in on the way the popular lions of the Alps, and then proceeding, via, Milan and Genoa, to Florence, Rome, Naples, and Calabria, then from Messina to Syracuse, and on to the East. All this, excepting the East, on foot. At another time from Venice to Milan, besides a mult.i.tude of minor tours, and my well-known walk through Norway.

In the course of these, my usual average rate, when in fair training, was 200 miles per week. The alcohol experiments consisted in doing a fortnight at this rate on water, scrupulously abstaining from any alcoholic drink whatever, and then a fortnight using the beverages of the country in ordinary moderate quant.i.ty. I have thus used British ales and porter, Bavarian beer, French wines, Italian wines, Hungarian wine in the Tyrol, Christiania ol, &c., according to circ.u.mstances, and the result has been the same, 'or with very little variation. With the stimulant I have, of course, obtained a temporary exhilaration that was pleasant enough while it lasted, but after the first week I found myself dragging through the last few miles, and quite able to appreciate the common habit of halting at a roadside "pub." or wine-shop, for a drink on the way. No such inclination came upon me when my only beverage was water, or water plus a cup of coffee for breakfast _only_ (no afternoon tea). Then I came in fresh, usually finishing at the best pace of the day, enjoying the brisk exercise in cool evening air. Physical work of this kind admits of accurate measurement, and I was careful to equalise the average of these experimental comparative fortnights.

The result is a firm conviction that the only beverage for obtaining the maximum work out of any piece of human machinery is water, as pure as possible; that all other beverages (including even tea and coffee), ginger-beer, and all such concoctions as the so-called "temperance drinks," are prejudicial to anybody not under medical treatment. To a sound-bodied man there is no danger in drinking any quant.i.ty of cold water in the hottest weather, provided _it is swallowed slowly_.

I have drunk as much as a dozen quarts in the course of a stiff mountain climb when perspiring profusely, and never suffered the slightest inconvenience, but, on the contrary, have found that the perspiration promoted by frequent and copious libations at the mountain streams enabled me to vigorously enjoy the roasting beat of sun-rays striking so freely and fiercely as they do through the thin air on the southward slopes of a high mountain.

I am not a teetotaler, and enjoy a gla.s.s of light wine, but always take it as I sucked lollypops when a child, not because "it is good for my complaint," or any such humbug, but simply because I am so low in the scale of creation, as imperfect, as far from angelic, as to be capable of occasionally enjoying a certain amount of purely sensual indulgence, and of doing so from nothing higher than purely sensual motives.

If all would admit this, and freely confess that their drinking or smoking, however moderate, is simply a folly or a vice, they would be far less liable to go to excess than when they befool themselves by inventing excuses that cover their weaknesses with a flimsy disguise of medicinal necessity, or other pretended advantage. In all such cases the physical mischief of the alcohol is supplemented by the moral corruption of habitual hypocrisy."

_Knowledge_, August 18, 1882.

DR. BURNEY YEO, M. D.

"With regard to the effect of moderate doses of alcohol on mental work much difference of opinion exists. Many students find that, instead of helping them in their work, it hinders them. It dulls their receptive faculties. Others, on the contrary, find real help in moderate quant.i.ties of wine. These differences of effect would seem to depend greatly on differences in const.i.tutional temperament. It is certainly capable, for a time, of calling some of the mental faculties into increased activity. Some of the best things that have ever been said have been said under the influence of wine. The circulation through the brain is quickened, the nervous tissue receives more nourishment, the imagination is stimulated, and ideas flow more rapidly, but it is doubtful if the power of close reasoning be not always diminished. It is useful for reviving mental power, when from accidental circ.u.mstances, such as want of food, &c., it has been exhausted, but it should never be relied upon as an aid to continuous effort or close application."

_Fortnightly Review_. Vol. 21, p. 547.

CONCLUSION.

From a review of the 124 testimonies, including those which appear in the Appendix, I find that 25 use wine at dinner only; 30 are abstainers from all alcoholic liquors; 24 use tobacco, out of which only 12 smoke whilst at work; one chews and one took snuff. Not one resorts to alcohol for stimulus to thinking, and only two or three defend its use under special circ.u.mstances--"useful at a pinch," under "physical or mental exhaustion." "Not one resorts to alcohol" for inspiration. This is an important discovery, and indicates the existence of more enlightened views in reference to the value of alcohol, since Burns sang the praise of whisky:--"It kindles wit and weakens fear." That some literary men still "support" themselves by alcoholic stimulants, is no doubt true; and, if M. Taine is not mistaken, some of the leader writers of the London papers can write their articles only by the aid of a bottle of champagne. When the creative faculty flags, or the attention wanders, a writer, who is working against time, is strongly tempted to fly to stimulants for aid.